Visibility
By: Aviantei
Chapter 04: Initiative
At the moment, Airi was determined to prove that she could deal with anything the world threw at her. Youta would have normally been at her side at times like these, except that he had apparently had some sort of important business to take care of during their lunch break. He had always been such a worrywart, but Airi had done her best to assure Youta that she could manage herself. Besides, she felt like she had enough of a mental layout of the school to at least make it to the bathroom without incident.
It took her a few minutes longer than usual, but Airi did eventually make it. It was times like these that she wished that Seirin had installed room panels with braille on them like she had heard certain schools in America did. Fortunately, she had the listening skills to identify the gender of the voices going in and out of the room to properly determine which one to enter.
Making such a mistake as going into the wrong restroom was really a scenario Airi wished to avoid, even if she wouldn't see anything to cause much trouble if she did.
She already knew the layout of the bathroom from previous trips inside—a few of her classmates had been kind enough to assist her where Youta obviously couldn't, even though he would be willing to try—so that was easy enough. Airi finished washing her hands and stepped back into the hallway, hoping to make it make back to the classroom quickly so that she and Tetsuya could share their lunch period together.
Kuroko-san really is sweet, Airi thought to herself, giggling slightly. The boy had even offered to direct Airi to the bathroom, but she had refused. There was no need to bother someone like Tetsuya who was her friend over something like this. She didn't even like bothering Youta with things like this, but he got away with it due to sheer perseverance. Maybe I should do something to thank him for being so nice to me. Or is that going too far? What if he thinks I'm trying to confess to him? I-I don't think I could handle that!
Airi felt her face heat up. Although making assumptions like that didn't seem to be in Tetsuya's character, there was always the chance of it happening. And while Tetsuya was nice, Airi was sure she didn't have any feelings like that at all. They had only known each other for about a month now, and that wasn't nearly enough time to develop feelings for someone, or at least not enough time to act on those feelings if they did exist.
Concentrating back on her route, Airi went to make the turn in the hallway back to her classroom. Instead, a hand took her wrist, pulling her in the opposite direction. The owner of the hand didn't say a word, but Airi was certain that it was female. The sound of other students talking covered up any other clues she could have gathered, and Airi was left to follow her guide blindly, in the most literal sense of the word.
She almost tripped once she was pulled up the stairs, but her guide took no notice, and Airi just barely managed to not fall over once she was made to stop. She tried to find a familiar sound—a breath, a footstep, a movement, something—but had no luck at all. Nervously, Airi bit her lip, gripping onto the railing by the stairs just so she would be certain of what one thing in her surroundings was.
"So this is her, huh?" a voice said, male. Judging by its location, it didn't come from the same person who was maintaining their hold on Airi's wrist.
"Of course it's her," the other voice commented, female and definitely close enough to be her captor. "Look at her, she's got her eyes closed, plus she totally didn't even see me coming."
"Maybe she's just scared."
"If she was scared she'd try to make a run for it. Geeze, just how stupid are you?"
Airi flinched back, not recognizing either of the voices. She was certain that she had a good grasp of all of her classmates by now, and a less than perfect handle on recognizing the basketball team. Not knowing who these people were made her want to call out for Youta, except for the fact that he wasn't there.
The girl laughed, her grip on Airi's wrist slightly tightening. Airi wanted to pull away, but was too frozen to do so. "Hey, maybe she is scared after all," the girl said, the sneer in her voice so obvious that it made Airi feel sick. "What's the matter, little blind girl; not so tough without that brother of yours around, now are you?"
Airi winced. "Don't call me that," she snapped before thinking, biting her lip afterwards. Getting angry would only make the situation worse, so she took a deep breath to calm herself. "What business do you have with me? Don't you know it's terribly rude to interrupt someone's lunch break without asking permission first?"
The mix of bite and sweetness made its mark, and the boy stepped forward, his indoor shoe making a muted echo within the stairwell. "What'd you say?" he said, voice louder than a speaking tone. Airi flinched back without meaning to, losing what little advantage she had. "We don't have to explain ourselves to people like you."
"Easy, easy," the girl interrupted. "Look at you, having a little backbone. But why don't you drop the tough act and save us all some trouble? Miura's right, you're just a piece of trash, leaching off of our school just 'cause it lets people like you get in. Why don't you go back to wherever you came from and leave us be?"
Airi swallowed, not knowing what else to say. It was people like this that she had to prove herself against, but she knew all she would do was end up yelling. She didn't like getting angry, so she bit her tongue. Besides, if she went and made a scene over this, then Youta would surely hear about it, and that would just cause more trouble. If only there was a way to—
"If you ask me, she has more right to be here than you do," a new voice interrupted, also male. This time the voice was soothingly familiar, although Airi partially berated herself for not hearing the footsteps approach. Both of her assailants stepped back in shock of the newcomer, the grip on Airi's wrist disappearing. "How spineless can you get, bullying someone that can't even see?" The voice softened a bit, "Oi, Watanabe, you okay?"
"Kagami-san," Airi whispered, reaching a tentative hand out. She was able to find the taller boy's uniform sleeve, clutching onto it for dear life. She hadn't had to do this since late elementary school, whenever she would cling onto Youta's arm just to survive through the day. Back in those days, she cried a lot, too, but Airi refused to do so now, not in front of people who obviously wanted nothing more than for her to break down. "Sorry to bother you, Kagami-san, but could you please take me back to the classroom?"
"Sure," Kagami said, a nonchalant element in his voice that seemed highly unfitting to the scenario. "Either of you got a problem with that?"
Judging by the change in projection of his voice, Kagami had turned to the bullies. They both had a large shift in their movement, eventually turning away from the two classmates to converse amongst themselves in whispers. Airi assumed they meant to keep their conversation a secret, but her trained ears picked up on it anyways.
"What are we gonna do, Sakamoto-san?"
"Don't be stupid, it's not like you can take Kagami Taiga down. Let's just get out of here while we still can," the girl hissed. They stood up, at least the girl turning around to address Kagami and Airi again. "We're sorry for any trouble we caused. Please have a good day!" she said, a desperate and forced politeness in her voice. And then they were moving, pounding footsteps running up the stairs and away from the remaining two.
Airi let out a deep sigh of relief, the tension draining from her shoulders. Only her grip on the railing and Kagami's sleeve kept her standing. Deciding that the latter was rude, Airi let go of her classmate only to have him grab back onto her arm. It was lighter than the girl's grip had been, more caring, but Airi still had to fight the urge to recoil.
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" Kagami asked. "You shouldn't go around like this when you can't see anything. What good is that brother of yours if he won't keep an eye on you when you leave the classroom?"
"Don't you dare speak about Nii-san that way," Airi snapped for the second time. She may not have liked losing her temper, she wasn't about to deal with someone badmouthing Youta, even if they were a friend and teammate of Tetsuya's. "And if you were intending to tell me that I'm useless because of my condition, I don't appreciate it, Kagami-san. I have a hard enough time dealing with people like that without you reminding me of my limits, too."
"Whoa, whoa," Kagami said, and he sounded genuinely apologetic when he spoke. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just trying to say that you should be careful since there are people like that out there, and that your brother should be there when you need him."
Airi paused and collected her thoughts before continuing. "I'm sorry, Kagami-san, but you need to understand he had other things to attend to. I insisted that he take care of them, and even told Kuroko-san to let me go out on my own," she explained, hoping that was enough to diffuse any potential argument. "When it comes down to it, I really have no one to blame but myself."
She already knew the words were wrong the moment she said them, Kagami's grip tightening for only a second before it relaxed again. "Hey, don't go thinking like that. The only ones that are to blame are those guys and whoever gave them the idea that it was okay to be prejudiced dumbasses." Kagami scoffed, his pulse quickening against Airi's wrist.
"Miura and Sakamoto." Kagami made a confused noise, and Airi stifled a small sigh in favor of smiling. "Their names. If you intend to do something about their behavior, Kagami-san, I'd prefer if it went through the staff as opposed to you possibly getting in trouble for taking care of it. In fact, if you don't mind, I'd like to selfishly make this request."
"Agh, no need to be so formal." Kagami sounded genuinely disgruntled by the idea, and Airi let a small giggle escape. "Come on, Watanabe, let's get you back to the classroom before Kuroko starts to worry about you. Hm, how do you even report something like this to the teachers anyway…?" The last part was more muttered to himself, but Airi felt herself pick up on something else Kagami had said.
"Kuroko-san…worries about me?" she asked, voice almost a whisper. Kagami snapped out of his contemplation, his focus zoning in on Airi so much that she noticed it without even having to focus. "N-no, never mind, Kagami-san! Let's just head back, if that's okay? I haven't been able to touch my lunch yet and I'd like to be able to eat sometime soon…"
"Yeah, I bought this lunch so I might as well eat it." There was a rustle of a bag from the other side of Kagami, which Airi immediately reprimanded herself for not noticing. If this whole incident had rattled her to the point of not even knowing the simple things she prided herself on, Airi still had a long way to go. "Alright, let's get going."
Whether or not Kagami noticed Airi's contemplative mood didn't matter, but she was grateful for the silence as they walked back to the classroom. For such a big guy, Kagami was surprisingly delicate in his leading, although he was nowhere near as accurate as Youta was. That was an unfair comparison, though, and Airi let it slide as they made it back to the familiar hallway surrounding class 2-B.
"Okay, this is it," Kagami announced, coming to a stop. Airi had already adjusted back to the environment, paying extra attention should anyone else decide to try and drag her off. "Do you need me to take you back to your desk, or…?"
Airi shook her head, dislodging her wrist from Kagami's hold and resting her hand against the doorway. She immediately felt safer than she had before. "No, I'll be fine," she insisted. "But Kagami-san…"
"What?"
"Could you please not tell Kuroko-san about this?" Kagami went to interject, but Airi expertly cut off his words. "The same goes for Nii-san… It's not fair to make them worry about something that already happened, so please don't bring it up. I'm sure that if you take it to the teachers, they can keep things private, too, so please… This is my other selfish request."
Airi made sure she was smiling before she made it to the desk that she and Tetsuya shared for lunch, hoping that Kagami would understand and keep word of the incident to himself.
Youta stood inside the third-year hallway, tottering around the doorway into one of the classrooms. He usually didn't feel nervous about these sorts of these things, but for the first time in a long time the boy's stomach was fluttering with enough anxious energy to make him meet the minimum requirements of nausea.
It didn't help that every glance in his direction felt like it was judging. After years of having Airi at his side, Youta had to admit he was the slightest bit paranoid of how people looked at him. Airi may not have noticed, but the tension had enabled the siblings to avoid conflicts in the past. The only downside was that the male twin was effectively jumpy whenever he was alone.
"Eh, is he an underclassman? He's kinda cute…"
"Come on, leave him alone, he probably has to do an errand for a teacher or something."
The whispers of a few passing girls were enough to cause Youta to blush, as well as finally move from his stationary position in front of the door frame. What he needed to do was important enough as it was, not to mention he had left Airi alone in the classroom. Taking a deep breath, Youta finally convinced himself to get moving, striding into the room and quickly locating the upperclassman he was looking for.
Aida Riko was sitting at her desk, with what appeared to be a perfectly balanced meal spread in front of her and a handheld gaming console in the hand not holding her chopsticks. Youta hadn't pegged Seirin coach for much of a gamer, but he supposed that not everyone had blatantly obvious interests. Finding himself needing to breathe again, the boy did so before approaching her.
"Aida-senpai," he called, alerting the young coach to his presence. Aida looked up, smiling upon seeing Youta approach.
"Hey there, Watanabe-kun," she responded. "How have you and Airi-chan been doing? Finally get settled in here?" It had only taken a few visits to practices for Aida to start treating the twins informally. Youta was still trying to adjust to the casual referral, although he was more concerned for Airi than himself.
"We've been adjusting just fine," Youta reported. Even when she was making everyday conversation, Aida seemed to have some layer added to her voice that made Youta feel like she was his coach, too. "Listen, Senpai, I have something really important I need to ask you…" Suddenly, it felt like everyone's eyes were on him again, even if life in the classroom was moving on as usual.
Aida seemed to pick up on Youta's tension almost as quickly as Airi would have, the upperclassman smirking a bit. "You wouldn't happen to be here to confess to me, would you, Watanabe-kun?" Youta could barely sputter out a denial before Aida was laughing. "Sorry, sorry, I couldn't resist." She took a drink from her juice box. "I can tell that what you want to say is more important than that. Go on."
Youta willed his nervousness to disappear, but it just didn't work. Well, there was nothing to do about it now, except to keep going. "Aida-senpai, what I wanted to talk to you about was this," he said, reaching into his uniform pocket. He produced a flyer, handing it over to Aida who put her game down to make room for the new addition to her hands.
"A charity tournament?" she asked, right on cue. Aida paused, reading over the details. Youta shifted nervously, reminding himself that biting his lip was a bad habit and would easily give away his less than calm mental state. Aida locked eyes with him not long afterwards, a serious look in her eyes. "I'm assuming that you want us to enter this tournament?"
Youta nodded, producing a shaky "Yes."
"Watanabe-kun," Aida said, starting a sentence that she never finished. The coach seemed to be considering exactly what to say. Youta took the opportunity to elaborate, hoping that it would increase the chances of receiving a positive answer.
"It's for my sister," he said. Aida looked reasonably confused. "Ai-chan wasn't born blind. We both got matching infections together in elementary school. The only difference is that her eyesight started to deteriorate while I made a perfect recovery." Youta still felt like he should have been the one to get worse, but there was nothing that could be changed about that now.
"She could still see if she had glasses, but she's going to end up being completely blind by the time she graduates. When Ai-chan heard that, she decided it would be better to just get used to not seeing right away and started keeping her eyes closed all the time. She's adjusted amazingly well but…"
"There's a surgery that could help her," Aida interjected. Youta nodded as Aida sat back in her chair, crossing her arms. "I read something about that a while back. It's not cheap and it's not guaranteed, but it's the best shot that people like Airi-chan have at seeing again… What does she think about this?"
The lump appeared in Youta's throat before he could even prepare for it. Swallowing did nothing to get alleviate the feeling. Of all of the problems with this request, this was the one that Youta didn't have a contingency plan for. "She doesn't think it's worth it," Youta admitted. "We really don't have the right kind of income to finance something like this, so she didn't even consider it an option… But if it was something like the lottery or a donation, I'm sure that she would be okay with it!"
Aida nodded once, but didn't seem sold on the idea. "You're asking a pretty big favor here, Watanabe-kun. I know it's for a good cause, but these sorts of things can be tricky. Plus I need my team to be ready for the Inter-high this summer. Putting training time aside and potentially revealing our team strategies before then isn't exactly a good move…" Aida let out a long sigh.
"I understand," Youta said, feeling like sighing himself. It had been, at the very least, worth a shot. He was just going to have to be sure to pick up a lottery ticket whenever they went shopping for dinner this evening. "I'm sorry for bothering you like this, Senpai. I'm sure that Ai-chan and I will stop by practice later so…" Youta turned around, keeping his disappointment behind a smile. It wouldn't be enough to fool Airi, but that should be easily be corrected by the time he returned to the classroom.
"Hold on, Watanabe-kun. I'll think about it." Youta paused, looking back at Aida over his shoulder. "This is a decision I feel as if I should consider before rejecting. I can't make any promises, but I can at least let you know when I do make a decision, alright?"
"Th-thank you very much!" Youta felt so overjoyed that he quickly pulled into a ninety-degree bow without even thinking about it. That was sure to attract people's attention, but he didn't care. Straightening up a bit, he said, "Um, though, Senpai, maybe if you could—"
"Keep this a secret from Airi-chan?" Aida finished for him, reaching back for her game. Youta nodded. "I understand. There's no point in making promises that we can't keep, right?"
"Right," Youta agreed, even if that wasn't it at all. "Thanks again, Senpai. Ai-chan and I'll see you later." Not wanting to stay around and give Aida a chance to change her mind, Youta rushed out of the classroom back to Airi's side.
It looked like he wasn't going to have to fake his smile after all.
And, after a long break, we're finally back to this story. The plot even started rolling this time around, so I hope the wait was worth it.
I cannot thank all of the people who have read and supported this story enough. CherryPop0120, An unnamed Guest, rasyanurul, Pea Brain Writer, Kyoichi Amaya, guest blaZer, shinigamigymnast13, Wolvesnightmare, Taz-Sae, Rinnesuke, Miyu101, Renrinrin, psychoteddy398, BeeBoo95, kim123kn, FreeHugs0009, volley-14-nerd, Anime-Kunoichi, TsugumiSora, Neoka, animefangirl0219, ririnto, SkyLion27, MusicalHysteria, ShinjutsuSekai, Yukimacchi, royalpurple153, dreaming-of-fireflies, DrAnime203, Aoi The Exorcist, RichPauper, ForlornDream, Shivi, WhiteWingedVampire, Attsos, Navi-chan, and NauLana for your favorites, follows, and wonderful reviews! You have all made this my most followed story, even though it's only existed for such a short time. I would love to hear from you all so I can make sure this story is worthy of all your attention.
Actually, I'm even more floored by how many people are still finding and reading this story even though it hasn't updated for moths.
There are some interesting things in this chapter. Writing Airi and Youta with their anxieties is actually really fun. Plus, things are going to get moving really soon, too. I hope you're all ready for it.
A quick request: I think I have an alright handle on Kagami's character, but writing him doesn't flow as easily as it does with Tetsuya and Riko. If anyone would be willing to see if I'm keeping him in character/give me tips on writing him, I'd be glad to hear them!
In response to guest blaZer (but is relevant to everyone who reads this): I understand that I've taken a long time to update this, but I do not intend to leave this story unfinished. I take a lot of pride in producing the best-quality work I can, and sometimes that takes time, especially while I'm writing several stories at once and dealing with real life. However, to ease your worries, this story does have the plot mostly planned out, so if you're all patient, it will definitely be completed.
And on that note, as a thank you for all your love, I will be updating the next several chapters of this story in the near future. You can expect chapter five in about two weeks at most.
Next time, a second encounter with Miura and Sakamoto, the cat falls out of the proverbial bag, and Youta can't decide if that day is a good one or a bad one. Please look forward to it!
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